ColdChapter 1
by Kendal J
Summary: This is a sci-fi story of my own where in the future the world begins to freeze. It's the start of a new time-an ice age. Catalina, or 'Cat', and her cousin Chains were left behind. Their parents went to Mexico to get a home but didn't come back. They have no where to go but south as the temperatures begin to drop. But maybe it isn't just the climate that is growing colder...


Chapter 1

Nightmares

My whole body was numb. The wind whipped around us as we walked down the shops. Nothing looked promising. Hopeless, we stood silently outside the bookstore. Nothing moved inside, so we pushed the door open and waited for the worst. Everything was silent. Shelves outlined every wall, filled with books that no one had thought were useful. The counter had several pastries in it, probably stale, but anything was good at this point. I walked over and a small, silver music box caught my eye. I picked it up. When I was younger, I had a music box that I would play every morning. Music was the most important thing in the world to me. Now Chains was the most important.

With numb fingers I began to slowly turn the lever of the music box. A ballerina started dancing mournfully to the quiet melody. The music was the best thing my ears had heard in weeks. The last sweet sound I could remember was the sound of Chains's laugh when I told her a joke before we left. She doesn't laugh anymore.

"Chains, come here. Listen to this." I held the music box up to my cousin's ear and she smiled pleasantly. Suddenly the ballerina stopped dancing, and the tune cut off sharply. Chains winced, and I quickly started to wind it up again. The lever snapped off angrily when I did.

"It's broken, isn't it? Just like everything else." Chains sighed angrily, and then threw the box violently across the bookstore we were standing in. A look of shock crossed my face. She had been trying to hold herself together for me, because we were all each other had. But sometimes something would push her over the edge, and she would snap. After our we realised that our parents weren't coming back, she didn't trust anything or anyone and became upset easily.

"Chains, you know that isn't true. We aren't broken, because if we were, we wouldn't be trying to reach the border." I grabbed her hand tightly, but she pulled hers away harshly.

"Don't try to comfort me! I'm only a year younger than you, so I know the truth! It won't be any better in Mexico, or anywhere for that matter! I'm tired of you treating me like a little kid, when I'm already 15 and you know it!" She stormed out of the door. It hurt, but I knew that she couldn't stay outside for long. Just as I predicted, she came back in with red ears and a pale face. Silently, we packed our bags and grabbed the few pastries sitting at the front of the bookstore. The place had been overlooked by the bandits who had scavenged every grocery store until there was nothing usable left.

Chains hadn't taken any books, but I had grabbed one quickly. She thought that reading was a waste of time, but during the long watches at night I needed something to do. Chains had a secret sketchbook that she thought I didn't know about, but there were a few nights where I had stayed up watching her draw pictures of the past. They all had a sun in them. Heat was what we needed the most, and by looking at Chains's pale face I could tell that she had a vitamin D deficiency.

"I'm sorry, Catalina." Chains said, bringing me back to reality. I nodded and we hugged. With two coats on and several hats, we walked out into the street. I'm not really sure what state we were in, but we had been traveling for at least a month. Just before everything got really bad, Chains's parents and mine had taken a trip to Mexico trying to get a place we could stay. Chains and I stayed behind, ensuring that what we had in North Dakota wasn't taken. Eventually we ran out of food and other survivors threatened to kill us if we didn't leave. I wanted to find a new home, but our parents weren't coming back so we set off for Mexico instead.

After stopping by the bookstore we traveled for several more hours, but it was getting dark and much colder. Shivers went down my arms as I thought about the night before. Chains woke up with lips of pure blue, her face drained of any trace of color. I was sure that she had died, but the cold had slowed her pulse so I couldn't tell if she was alive or not.

"Cat, we need to stop soon. The sun is already almost down." Chains shook my arm gently. There was a sketchy hotel next to us. Any bandit could do better, so I decided to take our chances. We headed into the empty building, which smelt faintly of smoke and waste. We picked a few room keys at random and started heading towards the first one. Inside was a worker who took a nap as she was cleaning. By the look of her clothing and face, we could tell instantly that she was dead.

"Should we-" Chains looked around helplessly.

"There's nothing we can do. We might as well leave her here." I grabbed her arm and started pulling her towards the next room. This one was empty and didn't smell too bad so we settled down quickly and fell asleep. I was confident that we wouldn't be found, so I didn't suggest taking watches.

Late that night I woke up shivering. Goosebumps covered the lengths of my arms and my hair stood straight up. I gathered the blankets closer and placed myself closer to Chains. Still shivering, I fell asleep again. We were used to cold nights so it wasn't hard to get some sleep. After the one time, I didn't get up until morning.

Small rays of sunshine crept in through the window. Yawning, I sat up and stretched. Chains was still asleep, so I went ahead and started making breakfast. We had ten different pastries, a box of dried fruit, and a can of beans. I sighed heavily. It seemed like we never had enough to eat. Finally I made up my mind to split one of the pastries and have a bit of dried fruit. We could eat more later if we were hungry.

I walked back over to the bed and shook Chains's shoulder gently. "Breakfast is ready." Whispering, I managed to pull her off the bed. She shook her eyes open and looked around the room. The pastry lay on my palm, and she took it greedily. Nibbling on my half, I told her what we had to do.

"We're short on food again, so we need to scavenge today. If we can find enough, then tomorrow can be a traveling day."

She looked at me sadly. "We never have food." After a bit of thought, she said something that really shocked me. "Maybe we should just give up," she said softly.

"What, and die? Tell me you don't mean that! We've made it this far, and now you're saying that you want to give up?" I looked at her angrily.

"Never mind. It's just that...if our parents were really alive, why didn't they come looking for us?"

This question had eaten away at my mind several times before. "I don't know, Chains. Maybe they are looking for us, but they don't know where to start." I pulled her into a hug, and we stood there for a long time. Eventually hunger got the better of us and we pulled apart to continue eating.

After finishing off our pastries, we started heading off to look for food. We stopped at every store to see if there was anything edible. After about an hour, all we had collected was some honey at a farmer's market, but nothing substantial.

"Cat, there isn't anything. We'll just starve and you know it." She grabbed my shoulder and turned me towards her. I just shook my head, knowing I didn't have a strong argument against that.

After about 20 more stores, I knew that we would have to accept coming up empty handed. Then I noticed the Wal-Mart across the street. We hadn't ever been in one, in case there were bandits that wanted to kill us. But this Wal-Mart was just sitting there quietly, and I felt myself wanting to go over there.

"Alright, Chains, one more store and we can find a place to stay." I pulled her across the street. Her eyes widened as she saw what we approached.

"We can't go in there, there are probably bandits!" She hissed at me. I laughed and opened the doors.

"You said we should give up, didn't you, so why are you concerned now?" Playfully I twirled her hair and took off into the endless aisles. She followed closely, not wanting to be caught. Most of the food had been picked over, but there was still more than I could have ever hoped for. I grabbed a protein bar excitedly and shoved it in my mouth. Chains took one too and we stopped walking to chew. Shoving several in my bag, I continued running down the aisles.

"Chains, we won't have to go hungry for a long time! We could stay here, as long as no bandits came, and even if they did we could run away with a bit of food. This is more than I had hoped for!" We jumped up and down excitedly and then started planning. There was camping equipment and we set up ourselves a little home. That night we slept with full stomachs, something we hadn't done in months.

"Cat, we can't stay here," was the last thing that I heard before exhaustion got the better of me.

...

Footsteps echoed across the store. I awoke with a start and scrambled to get our things. Chains woke up soon after I had everything ready, and we sprinted towards the emergency exit.

"Maybe they'll leave." Chains said hopefully. I shook my head doubtfully. Like us, anyone who found the store would try to stay in it. Disappointed, I reached for my back-pack but Chains stopped me.

"Let's go raid the store. It's big, and no one would see us sneaking in." Chains pleaded with me, and I thought about it for a while.

"It's too dangerous. Who knows who's in there, and if they are bandits or not."

Chains glared at me for not allowing her to risk it. "It's time you stopped controlling me, Catalina." Shocked, I didn't even try to stop her as she pushed past me into the store.

"No, you'll get caught!" I hissed at her. She didn't even turn around, but continued crawling along the floor of Wal-Mart. With nothing else to do, I followed her angrily. Suddenly she jumped up and began to laugh.

"Catalina, it's nothing but a dog!" She ran about triumphantly and patted the animal on the head.

"Chains, don't be so sure. And don't let the dog bite you." Forgetting that I needed to stop acting like her mom, I lectured her about rabies and any other dangers I could find.

"If we hadn't have risked anything, we would've been convinced that there were people in here, and not a stupid mutt! You're too careful, and right now your safety-first attitude is what's gonna get us killed!"

"I know I'm being overprotective, but because of their carelessness our parents left us in that house, made some excuses, and then never came back! Now they're somewhere warm in Mexico wearing shorts and T-shirts and we're here! They left us for dead! I'm not going to let them get away with that, Chari! If we die I'm going to make sure they know it was their fault!" I screamed with everything I had in me, and my face was bright red. She turned away with tears in her eyes.

"Don't call me Chari." She whispered, and I barely heard her. Slowly we gathered ourselves together and started collecting everything that we could carry. The dog had been frightened by our screaming, and was cowering in the corner.

Eventually our arms became full, and the wagons we had found were almost overflowing. Not exchanging any words, we walked out of the store with a new wall built between us. The outdoor air was freezing, much colder than when we had been out there before.

"It's dark. We need to stay somewhere." Chains muttered. Nodding, I dragged our things over to an apartment. After looking at the outside, I could tell that this was just a step above homelessness in the old days. Perfect. No bandit in his right mind would stay here. Then again, they weren't exactly in their right minds.

I decided that it would be too hard to drag the wagons into the apartments, so with several neutral colored blankets and snow, we managed to camouflage it into a snow bank. Chains picked the apartment, and even though we could have picked a safer one, I didn't say anything.

"Our parents didn't abandon us." Chains said harshly as we were setting our packs down by the bed.

"You said that you were old enough to handle the truth, and there it is." Without thinking I snapped back at her. She sighed and sank into the bed. Toys were strewn across the room. _A family lives here, _I thought to myself, _no, a family used to live here. No one's alive now._ Salty tears flowed down my cheeks and I curled up next to Chains. She turned, indicating that we weren't friends again, and probably wouldn't be for a while. I was exhausted, but sleep didn't come for a long time.

"I'm sorry, Chains. I shouldn't have yelled at you." My voice echoed in the room. If she was awake, she didn't reply. I wouldn't be surprised if she was asleep.

...

Chains was already up when I finally awoke. The sun wasn't out yet, meaning either I hadn't slept long or the days were getting shorter. Hopefully not the latter. Shorter days meant colder weather, and I didn't know how much more of that I could take.

Apparently Chains hadn't forgiven me, because when I tried to talk she silenced me with a hateful glare. Not too eager to push her, I left her alone as we packed. Solemnly we strode out the door, not aware of the faint panting noise coming from behind us.

...

"Chains, I think we're being followed." Casually I stopped walking and whispered sharply at her. We both glanced behind us. Sure enough, footsteps echoed in the halls behind us.

"Let's check it out." Without arguing, I followed her plan and we silently crept towards the noise. Panting joined the uneven steps. I thought that that meant there was more than one person. Anxious, I pulled Chains into the closest room. The people hesitated, and then continued walking.

"Cat, no human walks like that." Chains rolled her eyes and jumped out into the hallway. Screaming her name, I jumped out after her, ready for a fight. All that awaited was a happy looking dog.

"Ugh, we got scared over that mutt?" Shaking my head, I turned away and started walking again.

"Wait! Cat, he didn't do anything to you. He's survived this long, maybe we should-"

I interrupted her rudely. "No, we can't be responsible for that mutt. Leave it, Chains." As I was saying that, I remembered how I had yelled at her earlier, and her sad face hit me hard. "Fine, but don't get too attached," I snapped. A smile flooded her face. We left the hotel with plenty of food and a new companion. Maybe it wouldn't be so bad after all.

"Look, Cat, his collar says his name is Zoby. What idiot would name a dog Zoby?" Chains held Zoby's shabby collar in her hand. Great. Now the dog had a name. I decided to inspect him further since it seemed like we would be stuck with him for a while. As I looked at Zoby I noticed his size for the first time. Zoby was a Saint Bernard, with a thick, dirty coat that could keep a several people and dogs warm. His tongue was sticking out, with buckets of drool dripping out of the corners of his mouth.

"Oh my god, he's big!" I jumped back. Chains sneered at my reaction.

"Yeah, I guess you just didn't bother to notice before." Chains pet Zoby affectionately. He was almost up to her shoulders when he sat, maybe big enough to ride. His massive tail wagged back and forth. I made a note to myself to not get hit by his tail. He could wipe out an army with it.

"Maybe he could carry some of our stuff." I suggested. We put a pack on him, but he didn't seem to notice. At least he was helpful.

That day we walked several miles. We had reached the country side, and therefore had to set up the tent to stay in. Every now and then there would be a howling in the distance, but we ignored it. Nights outside were always the worst, but Zoby curled up by us and in my opinion, it was one of the warmest nights we had had. Zoby had been alone so long that he must have missed human company, and thus accepted us right away.

Morning came sooner than I would've liked. For the first time in a while all I wanted to do was sit beneath the blankets and try to fall back asleep. But I couldn't. We had to get moving in order to stay safe. Every day it got colder, and if we didn't make it to Mexico soon we would freeze to death.

"Cat, I just wanted to say I forgive you for what happened." Chains shook my shoulder and I finally got up. Surprised, I looked over at her to see if she really meant it. Her face looked sincere. Relieved, I took her hand in my and squeezed it. Now that all was forgiven, our next goal was to make it to Mexico.

I've only been to Mexico once in my life. We were only there for a few days before my Mom caught some kind of bug and was sick for weeks. I was only 7, so all that I really remember was the heat and the food. My whole family came back as red as lobsters. Sunburns were always the worst pain for me, but now I craved the burn of the sun on my skin. The memory made my eyes water, and Chains looked at me concerned. With a small smile, I finished packing the last of our supplies and we took down the tent. Zoby guarded us contentedly the entire time. The tent was small so it only took us a few minutes to condense it down into the pack.

As soon as we were ready, I checked our map and we started walking again. My feet were sore, and the bottom of my shoe was falling apart. Soon I would need new shoes, which were a luxury for us.

"Do you remember when that branch on the tree broke, and you started freaking out like it was gonna die? Every day you would drag your friends back there and try to gently take it off with whatever you could find." Chains laughed at the memory.

"Hey, that was a long time ago, and that tree was in need of assistance." Pushing her lightly, I started to laugh with her.

"When we had to move you were so upset because you couldn't finish helping that darn tree. Honestly I think that you loved that tree more than me." She stopped laughing. That was the year when I had left Chains and moved. She hated me for not saying goodbye, but I couldn't do it. How was I supposed to tell her that I might not see her for a long time, if ever? Luckily her parents pursued their dreams of keeping us all together and moved nearby us again.

"Remember that time in kindergarten when the van broke down? You came home so upset because you were looking forward to that field trip and just as you and the other nine kids in your class climbed in the van sputtered and died." I giggled and she punched me lightly in the shoulder.

"I was not upset, and there were ten other kids, not nine." She frowned before cracking up and we both fell over in the snow. The memories weren't even that funny, but it had been so long since we spent time together like that, anything could've made me smile.

Suddenly Chains's face became serious. "Zoby's gone." We both looked around to discover that she was right.

"He's not gone, he's running over there." I raised a heavily gloved finger and pointed in the direction Zoby had gone. Suddenly he turned around and started sprinting back to us.

"Zoby, what's wrong?" Chains called to him. He barked a warning to us. As soon as he was at our side we started to jog instead of walk. Howls followed us from behind.

"Wolves! Zoby was trying to warn us!" The words barely left my mouth before the silver figures started to appear. Wolves, which originally lived in the north, had easily adapted to the cold climate and now had only one problem. Hunger. No one could stop a hungry wolf unless they had a gun, and even if we did have one I wouldn't know how to shoot. Dropping the heaviest packs, Chains and I started sprinting away. There were buildings a little ways off, and the only way to escape was to outsmart the wolves, which is not an easy task. Zoby stayed a bit behind us, ready for a fight. The animal had become very attached to us in the short time we knew him.

My foot sunk into the snow several times. Snow-shoes were one of the items we had left behind. Half crawling, half running, we made our way to the buildings. The wolves were gaining on us and Chains got stuck in the snow. I had to haul her out of the hole her leg was trapped in, and we started to flee again. Our breathing was heavy, and everything inside me hurt from running so fast with heavy packs on my back. The door to the closest building was almost within reach. My hand flew out from my coat and wrapped around the handle, but something wasn't right. It took me a minute to notice the lock around the door. The wolves were right behind us now, and one snapped at my leg. Chains and I scrambled to the top of the nearest car. The creatures tried climbing but it was too slick for their thickly padded paws. Breathless, I laid out on top of the rusty CRV. Footsteps sounded from all sides. We were surrounded. Zoby was nowhere in sight. _Oh no,_ I thought to myself, _they got him, didn't they? _

"Cat, if this is the end, I just want you to know I'm sorry for this all, and if I hadn't held you back, we would be in Mexico right now-"

"No, you didn't hold me back. I stayed because I wanted to prove that our parents would come back. And they didn't. It was my want for affection that made me stay up north." I held out a shaky hand and Chains took it.

"Mexico's probably frozen too anyway." She mumbled grumpily.

"Don't think like that." My voice sounded empty in the cold air, with the growling of wild dogs all around. Scared, I pulled myself into a ball and waited for night to come.

...

"Cat, wake up." Chains punched my lightly in the shoulder. Everything around was blindingly bright, and the sound of panting dogs still remained.

"They're still here." I whispered. She nodded. "We're gonna starve unless we get off this stupid car." Pounding my fist into the metal, I looked around for an escape route.

"We can't get off without being torn to shreds."

"I'll find a way." Furious at our situation, I looked around for a way to escape. "Maybe this bucket of metal still works." Doubtfully, I looked in through the sun roof. There were no keys in the ignition.

"Wait, Cat, I think I see something coming this way."

"If it's more wolves I'm gonna commit suicide. If it's bandits, I'm either gonna commit suicide or marry them to get off this freaking car." I rolled onto my side and waited for something to happen. As I cleared my head a pensive look came across my face.

"Catalina, it's not bandits." Chains whispered gently into my ear. "I think we might be able to get away."

"If it's not bandits, it's wolves. I'm jumping." Quickly I stood up and prepared for a dive over the edge.

"Wait! It's not wolves either. It's something bigger, but just as furry-" Loud barking interrupted her.

It was Zoby. Now I had to watch him die too before I could jump.

"Zoby!" Chains called excitedly. As he came closer I noticed the determined look in his eyes. He barred his teeth and charged into the pack. I winced as several sets of canines turned against him. Out of the corner of my eye I noticed another dog smaller than Zoby running in our direction. As soon as it reached the car it joined the fight, pulling a wolf off Zoby's back.

"They can't do this alone." Muttering to myself, I pulled out a knife I kept in my back pocket for emergencies. My feet landed with a soft thud on the snow, and a couple wolves set their hungry eyes on me. The minor distraction gave Zoby just enough time to rip one's throat out and send the other flying. The pack started slowly retreating and I screamed at them.

"Don't ever mess with us again, you worthless dogs! Go find something else to eat you flee bags!" I threw some snow at them and they ran off. Zoby, who now had several bite marks to go along with his shaggy coat, gave me a satisfied look. Well, at least he wasn't completely useless, I told myself.

"Zoby, you saved us!" Chains turned into a little girl for a minute, and wrapped her arms around him. As fast the change had lasted, she was back into her usually tough self. "Told you it wasn't bandits." She sneered at me. I rolled my eyes and shrugged.

"I was the one that said we'd find a way out." Playfully I pushed her to the side.

"We didn't find a way out, Zoby did." Gratefully she stroked his matted fur. As I watched I realized just how exhausted I was.

"Let's go find somewhere to stay." We walked until we found a decent place to stay in. I didn't care if there bandits sleeping right next to us, I just wanted a good night's sleep. Luckily there was no one in sight, and the beds were the nicest we had slept in for a while.

"Zoby should sleep in here with us." Chains mumbled exhaustedly. I agreed. We flung ourselves onto the bed and closed our eyes.


End file.
